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Slaughter Secures $250 Million in State Funding Commitment for Rochester-Based Manufacturing Institute

April 9, 2015

Press Release

ROCHESTER, NY – Today, Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY) announced that New York State has committed $250 million toward a Rochester-based and New York-led application to secure a federal manufacturing institute. Slaughter requested the funding commitment for the manufacturing initiative in a letter to Governor Cuomo last December.

“The greater Rochester region has long been a leader in photonics, and I thank Governor Cuomo for agreeing to commit $250 million to help create a New York-led photonics manufacturing initiative based here in Rochester,” said Congresswoman Louise Slaughter. “The strong industry and state support we’ve built for our bid to secure the federal Institute for Manufacturing Innovation gives our application the competitive advantage needed to compete and win. More than 17,000 jobs in the photonics and optics industry are based in our region and this state financial commitment represents a key step in ensuring Rochester remains a world class innovator for years to come."

Last October, after years of advocacy by Congresswoman Slaughter, President Obama announced that the Department of Defense would take the lead in the creation of an Integrated Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation, committing $110 million to the project. In November of last year, just weeks after the president’s announcement, Congresswoman Slaughter convened a meeting with stakeholders to begin assembling a statewide application to bring the institute to Rochester.

The Rochester-based and New York-led proposal represents a partnership between SUNY Polytechnic Institute, the University of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology, and industry and academic leaders throughout the country. The proposal is a finalist in the federal competition for the institute. Click here to read the full endorsement letter from the New York State Department of Economic Development. Click here to read a bipartisan letter of support for the application written by Congresswoman Slaughter and signed by more than 30 of her colleagues.

Congresswoman Slaughter’s advocacy for the federal photonics institute has already yielded a series of local victories, including a $2.6 million Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator federal grant to assist the growth of the regional optics and photonics industry, a $500,000 federal grant to fund the development of the New York Photonics Manufacturing Initiative, and an Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership designation to gain priority access to more than a billion dollars in grants.